ECONOMIC TIMES – flutrr, an Indian intent-led dating app, has partnered with Saregama, India’s oldest music label, to introduce music-based matchmaking. The new feature lets users connect through shared musical preferences and moods, using Saregama’s catalogue as a signal for emotional and cultural compatibility, with the aim of reducing swipe fatigue and improving match quality.
INDEPENDENT.CO.UK – Rhonda Alexander, former CEO of dating app Fluttr, who was accused of bullying and reducing staff to tears, served as a judge for an industry diversity and inclusion awards panel. Despite presenting herself as a champion for diversity and female leadership, an employment tribunal found her behavior "manipulative," ordering Fluttr's parent company to pay £97,361 in compensation to former executive Laura Cameron Peck. Complaints included Alexander's humiliating colleagues, eroding their confidence, and displaying aggressive behavior during meetings. The judging panel she served on has since disbanded, and Alexander now runs The Maven Group, a consultancy focused on growth and diversity.
DAILY MAIL – Laura Cameron Peck, a former CEO of a sister start-up to Fluttr, a women-friendly dating app, was awarded ~£100K in compensation after facing bullying from Fluttr's CEO, Rhonda Alexander. The tribunal heard Alexander's behavior led to multiple staff complaints about being reduced to tears and feeling bullied. Despite Fluttr's mission to create a safe space for single women, behind the scenes, Alexander's behavior contradicted this ethos. Cameron Peck's attempts to address the issues were ignored, leading to her isolation and resignation. The employment tribunal upheld 13 of her claims, highlighting the mismatch between Fluttr's public values and its internal culture.
MOBILEIDWORLD – BlyssDating is using facial biometrics to make it more difficult for con artists to connect with victims on its platform. Blyss Dating is set to debut sometime in the summer, and is currently conducting a pre-registration drive for college students and young adults in the Washington, DC, area. Blyss is not the first dating platform to implement some form of identity verification. The Indian dating app Jeevansathi is onboarding new users with Onfido, while Yoti has provided identity services for Fluttr and DateID. The Meet Group has also partnered with Yoti and FaceTec to verify the ages and identities of its customers.
THE GUARDIAN – Dating app Fluttr is promising to eradicate Tinder Swindler-style romance fraud, which cost duped daters ~£100M last year, by ensuring that all members complete biometric ID verification before they digitally mingle. Fluttr has partnered with digital verification firm Yoti, which has clients including the NHS, Post Office and National Union of Students, to ensure all would-be daters are providing the correct personal details matched to government-issued documents.
GLOBAL BANKING & FINANCE – Dating app Fluttr will combine biometric ID verification with human moderation. The app's privacy-first approach is backed by state-of-the-art technology. Jessica Zeun, Head of Product at Fluttr, said: "When you scan in a document, it extracts information from your name and date of birth fields, and that's the Optical Character Recognition (OCR technology) at work. We also have NFC chip reading, so if you use your passport with a chip in, rather than asking you to take a photo of it – if your phone is able to read NFC chips, you'll be prompted to put your phone on top of your passport, and it will read the chip and send it through to our ID verification."
by Jessica Zeun
See full article at Global Banking & Finance
